Violence in the media vs Real Life

MTV's show "The Real World" (reality show) had a policy for over 15 years that if one person laid a hand on another person they were asked to leave the show. About 5 years ago one person slapped another person and he was gone. This season there was an incident where someone jumped someone and violently beat them and they remand on the show with no ramifications. Ratings must be down so showing young adults that you can use your fists in situations I guess is now O.K. The incident and the show's acceptance of it made me sick.

Punky - I am so sorry you lost your husband in such a violent way and also witnessed it. That must have been horrible and you will never be able to get that picture from your mind.

I don't watch too many police shows unless I come across it by accident. There is enough real violence in the world without seeking it out. Every morning when I turn on the news, it seems that someone was murdered overnight.

I witnessed the murder of my husband five yrs ago. I can tell you first hand no amount of tv wTching softened that blow. My husband was very interested in crime tv because he lost a sister to murder as a young child. So we watched all the shows. Living it is nothing like tv. And the kids and i where not any less effected because of it I still have nightmares and pstd. And the news even messed up in there reporting I thought i knew everything about the law from those shows and boy was i wrong. Even the reality ones dont come close to telling the whole story. As for people learning this horrid behavior A sick mind is a sick mind, tv doesnt create that.

Criminal Minds is one show that I will NOT watch. It seems to me that it is a primer on how to violate women. It apparently is well written and has a good cast. But it succeeds and is on several channels. IF IT BLEEDS, IT LEADS.

I much prefer the shows that are not scripted and have no "actors". My favorite is The First 48 on A and E.

I'm not the criminal type, but study or no study, I've learned a lot of things watching some of the crime shows. And seeing the same type of info repeated on several shows increases your understanding of how something can be done. It also diminishes the shock value...so I think some of these crimes don't make the news the way that they used to.

The thing is, there have always been bizarre crimes. There's actually *less* violence against children and less stranger-on-stranger violence in the US now than there was 100 years ago; the difference is that we hear about it now. Parents killing their own children, or abusing them horribly, used to be actually fairly common, because no one had ever heard of it so they didn't know they could/should step in and stop it when they saw a neighbor or family member looking like they were about to go around the bend. Cases like that sicko in Cleveland used to happen *all the time* but nobody talked about it.

There have actually been some studies about whether shows like CSI teach criminals how to get away with things, and it turns out they don't. There's actually a tiny effect to the opposite-- people who might have committed non-violent crimes like fraud sometimes don't because they've seen so many people get caught on TV!

There is one known problem with the CSI type shows, though, and that's their effect on juries. People see these shows where the brilliant lab techs get DNA off of the inside of a glove or something and nail the perp with 100% certainty in a half-hour's work, and then if they get called to jury duty they expect to have that kind of evidence for a case involving the theft of a 15-year-old car. They don't realize that the lab's budget and time are the biggest fantasy aspect of the whole show, and that in real life there's probably no DNA on the glove, and if there were, it would cost too much to find and test it for any crime less than murder.

I agree...mentally healthy people don't watch violence and decide to commit violence.

I just think the media is going into areas that merge violence with horror in the effort to get even higher ratings...and the crimes scenes are pushing the envelope on what they show on tv. I keep seeing gruesome stuff that makes me cringe but I'm sure it fascinates some people. And it doesn't help that it looks so realistic.

The more we see this stuff constantly...they more de-sensitized we become and I don't think that's such a great idea. We were shocked by Columbine...but there have been so many school shootings since...and I can't help thinking that some of the perpetrators followed by example.

I watch all the crime shows - CSIs, NCIS, Criminal Minds - but have NEVER thought about committing criminal acts so I think that people who are sick and do commit crimes would do it with or without the TV shows. EVERYTHING is easily accessible via internet on how to do things and how to construct things - that is where I think our bigger problem lies because these crazy people have too much information easily at hand and too many ways to purchase materials annoymously (guns, ammo, chemicals).

I think that if someone is going to do something they will do it with or without these shows. I like to watch CSI and NCIS but Criminal Minds is almost too creepy for me. I think there are people out there that is going to do what they will do regardless of what is on tv. However, after having said that...I do think we need to take great care in what our children watch and the video games that they play. I do not believe that they should be watching horror movies or playing video games that rack up points because one causes an accident or murders someone just for points.

I think that there is a real danger of more violence in the real life if one watches all the violence in the media. Too many 'copy cat' crimes. I also feel very strongly about letting children see it. My husband and I have stopped watching a lot of the news because of this very reason.

Let me begin by saying ... I am NOT for censorship but Do you get the feeling that the media is becoming more and more bizarre in it's crime thrillers and that some of the real crimes, in the news, are becoming equally unbelievable? I love to watch HANNIBAL and CSI but even primetime TV is going 'over the top' when it comes to displaying the victims. I just wonder about the sick minds out there, watching these programs, taking notes.

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